Liberia <•- 



the wild natives from whom the produce was to have been 

 taken, or to whom the goods were to be delivered, see their 

 opportunity for quite another kind of gain. They come off" 

 in hordes in their canoes and pillage the wrecked ship. Or 

 even if this does not occur, the owners of the ship will 

 somehow or other try to wring an indemnity from the Liberian 

 Government for having uncharted rocks on its coast. In either 

 case a good deal of threatening language is heard, and at one 

 time scarcely twelve months elapsed without a subject of 

 this, that, or the other E^ower claiming an indemnity for a 

 shipwreck. 



Of cuurse if it can be clearly shown that a foreign vessel 

 has come to grief on the Liberian coast without any attempt 

 to evade Customs duties, and if this vessel is pillaged or its 

 crew are ill-treated by the coast natives, foreign nations have 

 every right to claim an indemnity from the Liberian Govern- 

 ment, which must be held responsible for the maintenance of 

 law and order up and down this coast ; but as that Govern- 

 ment has the leave of the world to do things gently and 

 gradually, so it has neither the means nor the force to guarantee 

 security on every spot along its three hundred and forty miles of 

 coast line. Therefore it prescribes certain places as ports of 

 entry, and here — at any rate within the last ten years — it has 

 amply guaranteed security to life and property on the part 

 of all foreigners conducting a lawful trade. 



With reference to the official community in Liberia, it is 

 absolutely necessary, when the revenue of the country shows 

 signs of increase, that their rate of salary should be augmented. 

 The wages paid to all officials, from the President down to the 

 porter at the Customs-house, are not sufficient, even with great 

 economy, to maintain a civilised existence. 



With regard to the first fault to be found with these 



352 



